Reports, proud muckraking, photos, videos and musings from the veteran LGBT and AIDS human rights advocate Michael Petrelis. Based in San Francisco since 1995.
Contact: MPetrelis_at_AOL_dot_com.
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Friday, April 24, 2015

Cruz's NYC Gay Hotelier Pals Gave How Much to Giuliani?

There's a lot of controversy swirling back East about Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, the lont-term gay business partners who own the Out Hotel in Manhattan and property on Fire Island, because of their friendly fireside chat earlier this week with super-conservative and viciously anti-LGBT Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He needs all the assistance he can get to appeal to voters beyond the GOP base, as he runs for the 2015 presidential presidential nomination.

Gay and AIDS leader Tom Viola, a man with a spine and a huge heart who's executive director of Broadway Cares, announced this news today in response to Reisner and Weiderpass's chumminess with Cruz:

"It is with regret that we have decided to cancel this year’s edition of the Broadway Bares Solo Strips fundraiser, which was scheduled for May 10 at the NYC club 42West. We cannot in good conscience hold an event at a venue whose owners have alienated our community, as reflected in an April 23 New York Times story and an April 24 follow-up post. [...] This is not about partisan politics or punishment. This is about doing what’s right to ultimately ensure that our commitment to the men, women and children we serve cannot be questioned."

I checked the FEC records for Reisner and Weiderpass, and they have been quite generous with their checks to Democrats and the national party. However, Reisner in 2007 gave $2,300 to rotten Rudy Giuliani's campaign for president while Weiderpass donated $500 in 2008 to Giuliani.

Make of this info what you will. Mike and I endorse the boycott against all hotel properties owned by Reisner and Weirderpass. You should do the same.